Reducing commissioning time and inventory costs
IO-Link sensor solutions overcome technician shortages and rising costs
A rapidly growing dairy producer faced challenges maintaining consistent technical staffing for their instrumentation needs. With multiple ongoing projects requiring programming skills and deep knowledge of instrumentation, frequent technician turnover and the high cost of training made it difficult to keep pace. Additional production shifts only added pressure, as a qualified technician wasn’t always available on-site when needed.
ifm came up with a scalable solution that reduced complexity and dependency on specialized labor.
Results
- 50% reduction in the instrumentation commissioning and setup time.
- 40% reduction in pressure transmitter inventory costs, enabling the customer to allocate $10,000 for other purposes.
- Dramatic project costs decrease via $300 per device savings.
The challenge
- Operating in a remote location, the customer faced high employee turnover and rising labor costs, making it difficult to maintain a skilled technical workforce capable of commissioning instrumentation as needed.
- Operators and technicians were required to program and calibrate instruments from multiple manufacturers, each with different interfaces and instructions.
- The complexity of managing diverse instrumentation increased training time and required a higher level of technical expertise.
- The high cost of instrumentation forced the customer to make compromises on previous capital projects.
- Stocking a wide variety of sensors with different process fittings placed pressure on the organization’s inventory budget.
The solution
- ifm’s IO-Link Ethernet modules and sensors were implemented, allowing the customer to simplify their controls and instrumentation commissioning and setup through “plug and play” connectivity, significantly reducing the need for programming expertise on-site.
- The added benefit of a $300 savings per instrument over the nearest competitor was offered by ifm to the customer.
- ifm’s pressure sensors with variable process fittings were utilized, reducing the customer plant inventory for pressure sensors.
Technologies
Explore the underlying technologies that power this solution.
IO-Link technology is fundamental in real time monitoring and is embedded in ifm sensors. This technology allows the sensors to communicate the health and condition data via ethernet for processing. IO-Link communication provides fully digital data, resulting in higher quality measurements eliminating analog conversions.
PI/PM sensors offer flexibility to adapt to different installation needs and enable collection of such process values as pressure and level, leading to the higher visibility and process control.
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